


Promise

by RosewaterStories_Official



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/M, Sweet, romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:15:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27305434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosewaterStories_Official/pseuds/RosewaterStories_Official
Summary: An Alternate Ending to "Together Forever".
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	Promise

“Connie...will you marry me?”

“What…?”

“Let’s get married and live as Stevonnie!”

“What?!”

A million thoughts rushed through her head as she stumbled back onto the sand. Marriage? Live as Stevonnie? She watched his excited expression turn into concern upon seeing her reaction.

She could only breathe out a nervous chuckle. “Steven. Maybe we should...talk about this, first?”

Steven carried on as if she’d said it was a maybe. “I know you might think I’m being sentimental, but this makes sense! For example, I don’t know what you’ve been studying, but Stevonnie does! We can go to college together!”

As she watched and listened to him pour his heart out, Connie could only give a sympathetic and nervous look as she realized she’d have to reject his offer. He sounded so excited, so sure...and it broke her heart. Why did he have to ask her this _now?_

She finally gathered her strength to stand up. “Steven...come on, we’re really young!” She tried desperately to reason with him, hoping it would maybe make him realize how foolish this sounded…

He could only give her a hurt and nervous look. “You…” He paused, wincing at the internal pain he was already feeling. “You don’t want to be Stevonnie with me…?”

“Of course I do...but I want to be my own person too…”

“Well...yeah, but…” Steven covered the bracelet, suddenly embarrassed and rejected as the horrible realization of what her answer was sank in. He could only watch as she awkwardly walked around the beautiful picnic set-up, wrapping her arms around him as soon as she reached him.

“Is...is it a no…?” He weakly asked, already knowing the answer.

“It’s a not now, Steven…” She whispered softly, hoping to ease his worry if only slightly.

Steven began to feel desperate, not understanding her answer and only seeing it as pure rejection. “But...if we’re sure that we’re gonna spend our lives together, why not say it now…?”

She truly was drifting away from him, just like he feared. Paranoia crept into his head, wondering if she even loved him anymore. Or if she ever did…

Connie pulled away from him, looking him in the eyes with all the love she could muster, hoping he’d understand. “We’ve got plenty of time.” She squeezed his hands to reassure him. “Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried, I’m just...happy to be with you, that’s all…” He looked down now, somehow unable to look at her face anymore.

“I’m happy to be with you too! It’s just that-”

She was interrupted by the sound of her phone alarm, symbolizing that her fifteen minutes was up. Studying was important...but Steven was more important. Without a second thought, she pulled out her phone, turned the alarm off, and continued to talk.

“It’s just that I really want to finish school before I even think about getting married. Having an education before settling down is really important.”

Steven wanted to protest about her alarm, but instead decided to protest her statement. “But...Ruby and Sapphire didn’t go to school and they’re happily married. Most of the people in the books I’ve read didn’t get an education...they just...got married.”

She desperately hated how little Steven knew about the real world. All he knew was movies, books, tv shows, and gem culture. He couldn’t understand how real life marriage wasn’t just a magical fantasy where everything turns better…

“Steven...marriage is a much bigger deal as a real human. We’d move in together, have to pay a mortgage or rent, and you don’t have any education so I’d be the only one making money...we’d struggle.”

“But...Dad has money! Lots of it! We’d be fine...and we don’t have to move into a new place! We can move in with the gems!”

She could tell he was desperate and it only broke her heart more. “Your dad’s money won’t last forever, Steven...and I love the gems but I don’t want to live with them. When we get married sometime in the future I want to be able to start my career and also settle down. I can’t do that when I’m constantly studying or being in school...and I also want to be able to be my own person. We’d never be able to see each other! We’d just be...a fusion.”

“But we’d always be together! And...I’d finally figure out what to do with my life…” He looked down at the bracelet in his hand, shoving it into his pocket. He was trying so hard to keep it together...but listening to her stand there and list reasons why she couldn’t marry him was making him so uneasy.

“Steven...you’ll find your own path! Besides, Stevonnie isn’t exactly a legal person who could go to college anyway...it’s my grades and records, not theirs.” She took one of his hands again, watching him fidget.

“W-well what if we were just ourselves? Steven and Connie. We could get married and you could still go to college and I’d stay here but...you’d be my wife…”. Maybe deep down that’s all he really wanted. Reassurance that he wouldn’t be alone and she would always be with him.

“It wouldn’t be much of a marriage...but that’s not the biggest roadblock.”

“What would be…?”

She anxiously used her free hand to play with a strand of her hair. “It...wouldn’t be legal, Steven.”

He balked at that, eyes wide and letting go of her hand. “What?! Why would it not be legal?!”

“The law states that you have to be 18 years old to get married. You can get married before 18 but...it requires parental consent on both sides. I can tell you right now my parents would never allow it...and your dad probably wouldn’t either. We’re still kids, Steven…”

Sometimes that was a hard thing to truly think about. A kid. A teenager. Steven didn’t feel like either of those things. He took care of himself, took care of others, he technically had had a job before he quit it. Didn’t that make him an adult…? Why did he have to be 18 to marry Connie? Why did human law have to be so restrictive?

“I...I don’t feel like a kid, Connie…” He looked away from her, staring at the picnic next to them. “I’ve dealt with being an Earth ambassador, I’ve taken care of the gems, I’ve solved so many problems, I’ve run a school, I’ve even saved the universe...kids don’t do those kinds of things…”

Connie moved her hand to cup his cheek and turn it back to her. “It’s because you never got to be a kid, Steven...you were expected to grow up fast and be a hero...that wasn’t fair to you at all. You should have been able to be free, have friends, go to school, be a human...you think you’re an adult because of all the shit you had to go through but deep down you are still only 16. You should be doing what teenagers do…”

He let his face rest in her hand, feeling his eyes well up with tears. “I don’t know what teenagers do...I tried to fit in with your friends when we went skating and that was an absolute disaster…”

Connie winced slightly at the memory. “That was just one time, Steven. And you don’t have to hang out with my friends! There’s plenty of teenagers in Beach City. Just...walk around, get some french fries, find people to talk to!”

Steven felt a tear roll down his cheek, allowing it to slide down into her hand. “I’m not a human, Connie. I don’t fit in with other humans...maybe that’s why I wanted us to get married and be Stevonnie...then we could fit in anywhere…”

Connie used her thumb to wipe his tear, only feeling more and more sorry for her best friend. “Getting married won’t solve all your problems...and neither will Stevonnie. You have to find out what you want to do with your life. But before you do that, you should enjoy being a kid, Steven. You don’t run the school anymore, you have nothing to fix, you could maybe even go on a trip. Stop trying to find something or someone to fix...and just let yourself have fun.”

Steven removed his head from her hand, sniffling. “I...I guess I could try that…”

Connie removed the gap between them as she went to hug him again, this time feeling the slight lump in his pocket from the glow bracelet he had proposed to her with. She still felt so bad about the rejection...his proposal would have been perfect if he’d have just waited five or six years...but marrying him at 15 was an impossibility.

That’s when an idea popped into her head.

She pulled away and grabbed the bracelet out of his pocket.

“Connie, what are you-”

“Just listen for a second.” She smiled at him, holding her ‘ring’ in her hand. “I know we can’t get married anytime soon...but I have an idea. You’ve probably never seen this in all those cliche movies and tv shows, but how would you feel about a promise ring…?”

He stared at her in confusion, not recognizing the term at all. “Promise ring…?”

She beamed at him, suddenly excited. “It’s exactly how it sounds. A promise ring is something you give to someone to show loyalty and commitment. A promise to stay together no matter what. It’s not an engagement ring, but it is a promise that someday there will be a future together.”

Steven blinked at her, thinking about the idea. “So...it’s not a promise to get married, but it’s a promise that we’d be together forever…?”

“Exactly.” She smiled at him. “I may not be ready to get married to you...but I am ready to promise you that there will always be a Steven and Connie. No matter where we go, no matter where we end up...we’ll always find a way back to each other.”

Tears filled his eyes at the meaning of this. “So...what you’re saying is…?”

Connie slipped the bracelet around his right hand, wiping his tears once again. “Instead of this being my engagement ring, why don’t we make it your promise ring? You can wear it every day, even when the glow fades. A reminder of the promise I’m making you.”

Steven stared at the bracelet, so many emotions going through his head. The main one was happiness. “I...I like that idea. A lot...but don’t you need one?”

She shook her head. “I’ve still got the original one at home in my pencil cup. I’ll start wearing mine every day too.”

Feelings washed over Steven as he continued to stare at his new ‘promise ring’. He suddenly didn’t feel so afraid of being alone, being rejected. Yeah he wouldn’t be getting married anytime soon but in a way this was even better. The promise that no matter what, he and Connie would always be together. As best friends, as a relationship...and the thought of that alone calmed so many nerves and anxieties that had been building up.

Satisfied that he was now happy and she could make a genuine promise to him, her eyes drifted to the picnic. “So...are you still up for that picnic?”

Her words snapped him out of his happy trance. “Huh? Don’t you have to study?”

Studying was the absolute last thing on her mind. “Studying is important. But you’re more important. I want to stay and enjoy the spread you’ve laid out for us. It’s been so long since we went on a picnic…”

Steven smiled at that, letting her sit down before sitting next to her, a new hope racing through his body. He showed her all the sentimental items he’d prepared for her. Bread and jam, durian juice boxes, and an all-new edition, the cake from Lars’ bakery. He watched her smile and even laugh happily as he handed her a jam covered slice of bread.

“This reminds me so much of when we used to hang out on the temple hand and play music together…”

Steven smiled at the fond memory, getting brave enough to lean against her slightly. “Yeah...we haven’t done that in a long time.”

As she finished her bread, her eyes moved towards the cake box, lifting the top and gasping silently at the sight of the baked good. A beautiful strawberry cake with pink and white frosting, “Together Forever” written at the top. She could see Steven’s cheeks heat up in slight embarrassment, as if reminding him that at the base of it all this was still a failed proposal. Not wanting him to feel bad again and seeing the lack of forks, Connie used her hand to scoop up a small chunk of cake, offering it to him. With a grateful smile, he accepted it and tasted it. Lars’ baked goods just couldn’t be beat.

She leaned against him as the sound of the crashing waves rolled in the distance, looking down at the bracelet he now wore. She placed her hand in his free one, chuckling at the cake crumbs he had already gotten on his face.

He looked at the cake one more time before looking back at her. “Together forever…?”

Connie nodded, planning to put her bracelet on soon as she got home. “Together forever…”

It was a promise.


End file.
